A Diet for Osteoarthritis?

Sorry, there isn’t a diet for osteoarthritis (OA), but there are useful dietary measures you can take to improve on OA. These are long term options. There don’t work fast, but may help to cope with pain, inflammation, and disability. Dietary changes will act prophylactically.

Overweight
Overweight means more to carry. If you loose weight, your pain might also be alleviated. Overweight is a risk factor to develop OA. Once the process is on its way, loosing weight might not stop the changes in the joints, but still help in pain and severity.

Cherries, anthocyanins, and inflammation
I had been looking for cherries and gout attacks recently and found a study on inhibition of IL-6 and anthocyanins of cherry tart: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22703874. And others have been tested as well: black raspberries, strawberries, sweet potatoes, … Most probably all foods that have an effect on free radicals like anthocyanin, flavonoids, carotenoids, and more will also have an effect on inflammation. Cherries don’t contain as much anthocyanins like blackberries, elderberries, blueberries, or black currants.

Carotenoids, vitamin E and C
Carotenoids, vitamin E and C might be helpful in OA. There is an old study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8630116. These results reflect the amount of these compounds as takes in the diet, not to take supplementation products. If the diet is rich in carotenoids, vitamin E and C, you have a diet with lots of fresh vegetables, fruits, and nuts. You may at the same time reduce some harmful substances.

Iron
Too much iron will increase inflammation. We need enough iron, for sure, but excess of iron might promote inflammation and OA.

Phytochemicals
Phytochemicals like flavonoids and other polyphenols, like diallyl disulphide in garlic, sulforaphanes in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, lycopene in tomatoes might also help.

To sum it up, a more plant-based diet, which contains lots of whole grains, fruits, and veggies (not necessarily a vegetarian diet – that’s an ethic step) might help to avoid the development of osteoarthritis. It also means reducing meats and dairy products will be beneficial.